A new research project at Aarhus University aims to find new forms of treatment for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which breaks down myelin and nerve fibres, by developing new, artificial nerve fibres. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune cells attack myelin in the brain and spinal cord. Myelin or the myelin sheath is a protective layer of fat that insulates nerve fibres, much like plastic around an electrical cord. The sheath makes sure…
SPOP is the most mutated protein in prostate cancer and plays a role in endometrial, uterine and other cancers. Despite this importance, how SPOP mutations drive cancer has been incompletely understood. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture the first 3D structure of the entire SPOP assembly. The study, published today in Molecular Cell,revealed previously unknown SPOP interfaces that harbor clusters of cancer-causing mutations. The normal function of SPOP is to control the level of certain proteins within…
Researchers have developed a new tool and technique that uses “vortex ultrasound” – a sort of ultrasonic tornado – to break down blood clots in the brain. The new approach worked more quickly than existing techniques to eliminate clots formed in an in vitro model of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). “Our previous work looked at various techniques that use ultrasound to eliminate blood clots using what are essentially forward-facing waves,” says Xiaoning Jiang, co-corresponding author of a paper on…
Findings may point to a previously unknown influence of the strong force—and a way to measure its local fluctuations. Given the choice of three different “spin” orientations, certain particles emerging from collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an atom smasher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, appear to have a preference. As described in a paper just published in Nature by RHIC’s STAR collaboration, the results reveal a preference in global spin alignment of particles called phi mesons….
New study uses AlphaFold and AI to accelerate design of novel drug for liver cancer. New research uses AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered protein structure database, to accelerate the design and synthesis of a drug to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer. It is the first successful application of AlphaFold to hit identification process in drug discovery. This study by an international team of researchers, published last week in Chemical Science, is led by…
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology reveal how a methane-generating microbe can grow on toxic sulfite without becoming poisoned. Methanogens are microorganisms that produce methane when little or no oxygen is present in their surroundings. Their methane production – for example in the digestive tract of ruminants – is relevant for global carbon cycling, as methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, but can also be used as an energy source to heat our houses. A toxic base…
Method offers approach to shift laser colors for applications in science, industry, and medicine. Lasers are intense beams of colored light. Depending on their color and other properties, they can scan your groceries, cut through metal, eradicate tumors, and even trigger nuclear fusion. But not every laser color is available with the right properties for a specific job. To fix that, scientists have found a variety of ways to convert one color of laser light into another. In a study just…
New research reveals a region specific corticothalamic pathway between the thalamic reticular nucleus and the layer 5 cells of the frontal cortex. The pathway recruits inhibition in the thalamus proportional to the degree of cortical synchrony. The cortex is at the apex of information processing in the mammalian brain. Interestingly, however, beside olfactory inputs, no fast, precise information reaches the cortex without a thalamic transfer. Indeed, without exception all cortical regions receive thalamic inputs and none of them (olfactory cortex…
… into layered materials impacts ion storage capability. Investigating the interplay between the structure of water molecules that have been incorporated into layered materials such as clays and the configuration of ions in such materials has long proved a great experimental challenge. But researchers have now used a technique elsewhere commonly used to measure extremely tiny masses and molecular interactions at the nano level to observe these interactions for the first time. Their research was published in Nature Communications on…
Scientists invented a new way of tracking electronic properties inside materials, and used it to visualize magnetic domains in a previously unseen way. Everyone knows that holding two magnets together will lead to one of two results: they stick together, or they push each other apart. From this perspective, magnetism seems simple, but scientists have struggled for decades to really understand how magnetism behaves on the smallest scales. On the near-atomic level, magnetism is made of many ever-shifting kingdoms—called magnetic…
A key aspect of the study was the deployment of density functional theory (DFT), a method derived from quantum mechanics and used in solid-state physics to resolve complex crystalline structures. Ordinary everyday ice, like the ice produced by a fridge, is known to scientists as hexagonal ice (ice Ih), and is not the only crystalline phase of water. More than 20 different phases are possible. One of them, called “superionic ice” or “ice XVIII”, is of particular interest, among other…
Researchers at Göttingen University investigate attractiveness of wheat-bean crop mixtures for pollinating insects. There are often too few flowering plants in agricultural landscapes, which is one reason for the decline of pollinating insects. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now investigated how a mixture of crops of faba beans (broad beans) and wheat affects the number of pollinating insects. They found that areas of mixed crops compared with areas of single crops are visited equally often by foraging bees….
Mapping trees, finding heat islands: Research drones offer many new options for small-scale observation of the environment. Earth observation, also known as remote sensing, provides highly relevant information about the state and change of our planet every day via satellite data worldwide. The data can be used, for example, to gather information about heat islands in cities, droughts or the condition of forests. Earth observation is currently opening up additional data sources: With sensors installed on commercially available drones, it…
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered a new drug target for Ewing sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Their experiments show that the cells causing this cancer can essentially be reprogrammed with the flick of a genetic switch. Shutting down a single protein forces the cancer cells to take on a new identity and behave like normal connective tissue cells, a dramatic change that reins in their growth. This discovery suggests…
Researchers are building detailed maps of colorectal cancer to better understand the dynamics of the disease. At a glance: Researchers are building detailed 2D and 3D maps of colorectal cancer to better understand the dynamics of the disease The maps have revealed new information about colorectal cancers, including tumors’ molecular structure and how they interact with the immune system The ultimate goal of the colorectal cancer atlas is to propel cancer research, improve diagnosis and treatment In the United States,…
It’s not at every university that laser pulses powerful enough to burn paper and skin are sent blazing down a hallway. But that’s what happened in UMD’s Energy Research Facility, an unremarkable looking building on the northeast corner of campus. If you visit the utilitarian white and gray hall now, it seems like any other university hall—as long as you don’t peak behind a cork board and spot the metal plate covering a hole in the wall. But for a…
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